Films in the Attic:Scarecrows: Were not in Oz anymore!

The golden rules of horror films
kids are creepy
dolls are creepy
old freaky scarecrows hanging out in the middle of a corn field -which probably have creepy children in them.TOTALLY CREEPY and nothing is more apt then this weeks Films in the attic. Well most films in the killer scarecrow sub genre are just stuffing this film is a stitch above the rest. Just don't expect this scare crow to help you find the Wizard.

Title: Scarecrows

Year: 1988

Director: William Wesley

The Plot: The plot is simple. A band of thieves steal a large sum of money and kidnap a pilot and his daughter. They think its all smooth sailing until one rouge thief jumps with the money and lands in you guessed it a field. Out raged by this the guys set down to get back there money and get some payback on there fellow thief.

As they hunt for him and the money they soon discover that they are the ones being hunted and that the harmless field scarecrows might be not as friendly as in Wizard of Oz

The Review:

Not to sound sexist but this is a guys movie for sure. You really get a Predator/Rambo feel. Guns explosions and military men the only thing missing from this guy flick is naked women and Arnold Schwarzengger-hmmm maybe Andie scared them away with his groping.

The plot moves at a nice brisk pace. We the audience is dropped right into the situation and are quickly are brought to speed.  The story is a breath of fresh air, taking a different route with the heist aspect and that pretty much every characters are actually the villains. Though as the story progresses you see  everyone's true colors and that maybe not all the characters are truly all bad as they seem. I`ve always liked films that have your actors trapped in a house together and Wesley creates a nice tension between all of them.. My complaint is that the story is painfully basic and I would have liked this a lot more had the filmmakers explored the satanic worshiping back woods aspect with more depth. Not helping any is the cookie cutter characters. Asshole leader-check Dumb yet lovable guy-check Asshole Girl-check and Good girl who survives the film-check. There all there folks.  They are pretty standard but you grow to like them towards the end. Jack is my personal favorite-just sayin.

Don`t expect any blood splatter right away, this film is the kind that slowly sucks you into it then it reveals its fangs!  When the movie does start to get gory its well worth the wait. My one and only minor complaint is the scarecrows themselves could have been slightly better.. But their is some nice shock moments that had it not been for some well crafted makeup effects would have been cheesetastic. The body "stuffed" with straw and money was a nice disturbing touch that fits the heist plot perfectly. Totally will stick with you.

This is a nicely done effective chiller that is a perfect hybrid of action crime and horror and was done years before "From Dusk Til Dawn" cleverly mashed those elements up. And while it may lack character development and plot it makes up for in sheer freaky special effects and atmosphere that will make you think twice with taking a nice stroll in granddads haunted corn field. To use a terrible pun....Its likely to scare the straw out of you.